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I received an email from my credit card company advising me that my account had been flagged due to unusual charges. I looked at my online statement and to my disbelief, saw over 75 purchases made on 03/20/2017 and 03/21/2017 of $2.99 from Google. All of the charges had an asterisk* after the word Google, with a set of numbers and some were followed with g.co/payhelp # CA 94043 USA. When I contacted the customer service department of my credit card company, the agent stated that there had been over 260 attempted charges! Most $2.99 and a larger one of $74.00. My credit card company did an excellent job of taking care of the problem on their end. I have no idea how these thieves got my card number but I was advised that I was just 1 out of numerous customers who called with this exact problem. Obviously there is a large scale scam going on and they are using your company to steal money from people who actually work for a living. My account had to be closed, a new card mailed out, and I have to wait until they conclude their investigation to be able to use it again. This is very inconvenient for me but most importantly, I hope you can get to the bottom of this scam so it does not happen to more people in the future. This could potentially cripple someone who does not have a lot of income and/or children to feed. You are one of the largest companies in the world with endless resources at your fingertips. I hope you use some of those resources to combat this fraud. Also, a tip off may be that people do not make 260 charges of $2.99 one right after another. Thank you for your time.
same here. Started back on Nov. 27th and has charged a total of 232.99 with 102 charges on my credit card, These were for Google TikTok live. Google states that it is an actual charge coming from google as long as it is in a certain format and as you can see on the pictures I've posted these are legitimate google charges. I have contacted google and tiktok twice with no response. My credit card has notified me that if they do not reply then they will take the charges up as fraud. Also if this has happened to enough people there could very well be a class action law suite placed against google
I as well was notified by my credit card company of Google TikTok Live charges of .99 to $4.99. They started on November 27, 2022 and continued until December 10th, the grand total of charges were $232,99 with a total of 102 charges to my credit card. I have filed two complaints with google and with TikTok and neither have replied. My card company said that if I could not get a reply regarding these charges then they will pick it up and start a file for fraud on the charges. As one gentlemen that had the same situation happen to him I totally agree with him on google is a huge business and they can afford and should have the most experienced and well trained team of employees that work in this area to prevent this from happening. If this is not a fraud then it has alot to say about google because if someone can get into their system then this entire world is in for alot of potential danger from their information not being protected as googles policy and terms of agreement states it will be, If there are enough people that this has happened to we may want to look at our states procedures and policy relating to class laws suite on google not having proper measurements in tack to handle people's sensitive and private information, qaSss
It is absolutely a Google scam. The [protected] is a Google corporate number.
Happened to us for a small amount of less than $50z Bank of America caught it notified us, issued a new card. They also asked us if we wanted to put a block on any purchase with any charge that is “Google*”. It won’t let any charge that starts with that be charged from our account. Ask your bank if that is an option.
Just had this happen twice in less than a month. Then did some research and found when going to Google settings there is an option for a 2 factor verification code. Hopefully this will fix the issue and wanted to share.
This just happened with me on my company credit card. Thankfully it was caught by the fraud department, but not until there were FOUR PAGES of these transactions.
As you can see from earlier posts, Google has known about this since at least 2017. Why they won't do something about it is worthy of a class action lawsuit.
Happened to me too
Same thing happened to me in February and March 2022. I worry about people like my parents who are not familiar with using computers and could easily go months or years simply paying whatever amount is due each month and getting scammed for every penny they have by some pathetic, worthless, parasite scumbag who sucks income off of decent, unsuspecting people and ruining lives through the process.
Somebody has to do something to stop this and prevent more victims getting taken advantage of in the future. I'm so disgusted that I am now dedicating today and as much of my spare time as possible to search for the identities of these scumbags so they can be held accountable and innocent lives don't get destroyed in the future by these thieves.
I used to think big corporations out there like Google or Apple would act when something like this happens to bring justice ("With great power comes great responsibility), and that may have been true in the past, but that is certainly not true in today's world. Don't assume they have your back or that big corporations/big tech view the world like common people that you bump into walking down the street everyday. One lesson I have learned is that huge corporations and tech companies operate in a completely different way than me or anyone else I know. Protect yourself and the ones you care about, beware when assuming anything, and don't expect that someone else is going to do the work needed for protecting you, your family, or your communities. Sometimes you have to get your hands dirty, without getting paid, simply because you know it's the right thing to do. Because, if you take a good look around sometimes everyone else is making the same assumptions as you.
I have been having this issue too. And I saw your post with Waterloo. Is it the same Waterloo the is located by new roads, louisiana. If so i figured out he put a [censored] load of charges on mine. If you do live in the area and haven’t found out who is doing it. Message me back.
I was told to lock my cards, with the card company app. I log in, unlock for a purchase, then log out. No more fraud charges without my ok.
I just had my 2 credit cards have google pay hold put on them.
This is copied from my financial issuer
(Pending) CREDIT CARD AUTHORIZATION GOOGLE*TEMPORARY HOLD G.CO/HELPPAY# CA
I cancel the first card. Then within 2 days the other card also had the attempted fraud from google pay.
I reveiewed all recent purchases. The one card was new (a few weeks) as the old one had expired. This made it easy. EBay is the only common factor. I had returned items on EBay (both cards, different companies). I had to "chat" with an EBay rep on these (I think the reps are in the Phillipines). I suspect the agents for EBay in the Phillipines steal the numbers, as they are the only ones with accessto my credit card info, and sell them or know someone in America they sell/give them to. It is either that or EBay has been hacked. I will not use EBay again. You can't even contact a human anymore.
EBay ahs not human telelphone number anymore that I could find. I am DONE with EBay.
Hi. This is not done. I lost over $300 on 21-Oct-2021. VERY similar, a lot of 5-10-15 dollar charges within a few minutes. The same 'GOOGLE'/payhelp/CA' information as previously mentioned. Google is doing a great job of being invasive with computer accounts but a TERRIBLE job of providing any security or auditing. ( Thanks for NOTHING, Mr. Google ). My bank is now investigating but they say it will be 1-2 weeks before I can access what's left of my account. VERY disturbing. I don't know what difference it will make but GOOGLE will get nothing but negative reviews from me.
This just happened to me too! Over $5000 dollars in GAMANIA charges of $3.14 a piece. This has to be some type of scam. The bank said there were over 160 pages of charges and they all happened in ONE day! How did this even happen before the card was canceled?!?!? Absolutely ridiculous! Scammers!
i got a charge of 53.68 on my debit card from google ads and i showed proof and they keep saying its not from them.it says its from singapore and im from usa
THE SAME THING OCCURED WITH MY ACCOUNT! MY PAYROLL WAS DEPOSITED ON 9/2/21 AND, AND WITHIN A MATTER OF MINUTES THERE WAS, 133 purchases @ 1.09 and, 65 purchases @ 4.39 all to, "GOOGLE YALLA LUDO HD!" (I don't even know what that is!) I'm so disappointed, shocked, and upset in my bank and most of all GOOGLE CORPORATION for allowing these fraudulent actions to occur and, nothing is being done about it!
$430.32 DOLLARS OF MY MONEY GONE WITHIN A MATTER OF SECONDS! I CONTACTED MY BANK AND GOOGLE IMMEDIATELY! MY BANK CANCELLED MY CARD AND, NOW ARE INVESTIGATING THESE UNAUTHORIZED PURCHASES! GOOGLE CONTACTED ME SEVEN DAY'S LATER ONLY TO SAY,
"WE COULDN'T VERIFY YOUR CLAIM"
Hello,
After reviewing your claim, we were unable to confirm fraudulent activity in this case, so no refund will be provided by Google at this time. If you would like to pursue the matter further, you can reach out to your financial institution.
WHAT!
This happened to me as well. It followed numerous fraudulent charges on a different card (my debit card) & I had to cancel card/get entire new bank account because of it. My bank forgot to turn off the old account & charges Cont..& has been a huge mess. Then weeks later I noticed all of these “Google*Google Play” $5 purchases that I didn’t make in Google blamed it on my child, Who has no access to any of my cards at all & honestly is not that kind of child whatsoever. The fraudsters had got my passwords & Believe this is how all of this happened following the debit card fraud. I have come to realize that U NEVER EVER USE A CC AT A GAS PUMP & ACTUALLY TYLE YOUR PIN IN! INSTEAD U ALWAYS MUST BYPASS PIN! Fraudsters put scanners on pumps to get ur personal acct info, & in my case sum1 actually added my debit card to their cell phone virtual wallet and kept making purchases..HOW BOLD RITE?! I am positive this is how my identity was stolen and I know exactly which gas station it occurred at. 1 thing valuable that I learned from this experience is that if the piece that you put your cc in at a gas pump sticks out then don’t use it! Go inside to pay even & still bypass your pin. Here is an example of what I’m talking about...in area I live, Get-Go gas stations can have scanners on their pumps. Marathon gas stations can as well, but most BP pumps they cannot put scanners on!
It's insane to realize there have been so many incidents?
4 days ago, I suddenly received call from my bank at 11 pm telling me that my debit card was blocked for suspicious purchase at first I thought the call was a scam but I was shocked to actually see them appear on the legitimate debit messages from my bank. Two transactions worth 50 and 150 euros were made. My account was promptly blocked by the bank, so I couldn't access the mini statement either I didn't know where my money went, they sent me the statement on my mail within half an hour where I found out it was Google ads. I never had a Google ad account, it was freshly created but how? I never gave anyone password to my Google account or even any of my devices, how did they get past the 2F authentication is still haunting me.
I was really lucky for my bank's prompt actions and updates I was able to find out the source and cancel the account immediately to receive refunds. There was another ad running on my Facebook account (associated to another email) next morning, which shocked me.
I later found out that the scammer had created a filter on my mail to move all the Google emails to trash, and I kept wondering how they still had access to my account despite changing password and revoking access from all logged in devices.
I still haven't received any refunds on my account and there hasn't been much updates from Google and Facebook apart from automated messages. It's really messy, please scan your computer and mobile devices for malwares. It's impossible for them to get past 2FA if they don't have your account's authentication keys, or your device's session cookies. Keep updating your passwords often, don't stay logged in, and log out your accounts once you're done using them, AND DON'T save your card with a lot of money on any website even if it's Google is all I learnt.
Over 20 charges on a single day 08/11/21 - all for $5. All to GOOGLE*Google Play. How does this happen?
me too except i had 412 charges of 5 dollars all done on the 11th and googlr refuses to pay
This happened to me just today, got an email from my credit card company about the charges. Do any of you happened to have TMobile as your service provider and have used the affected card to pay your phone bill at their site or app? If so then I believe the data breach they had earlier this summer did compromise our payment information despite claims by tmobile only names, dob and addresses were breached. Not payment info. My affected card was only used on 2 sites tmobile and paypal and paypal is all clear, no issues.
not done yet. 21-Oct-2021 . Same modus operandi - lots of small-dollar-amount charges all within minutes on the same day. The 'google machine' is driverless.
Today (08/10/2021) I had a charge against my bank account from GOOGLE for $424.99 (not a small amount). No one in my family has a GOOGLE Pay account (nor never will at this point). Reported it to my bank as a fraud charge, canceled the credit card. BUT, there is no support from GOOGLE to even have this investigated. Shame on GOOGLE.
Today lost $610 on 122transaction at $5 each to Google play. Not my purchases.
This happened to me today! 7/22/2021 They took over $ 635 left me with .09 cents to my name! all in 5 dollar increments! WTH do we do? My bank just let it happen. Now I have to file a claim and they might not refund it back, and it could take 45 days...I hate people.
me too so what can we do
i just found out my 2nd account was hacked and scammed me the amount of 7K + RM.
This is totally ridiculous.
Anyone have any solution on this ?
Does google aware of this ? the bank can't do anything since this debit was came out from our consent.
Just got off the phone with my banks fraud dept. They got me for about 200 dollars over 5 transactions. This is rediculous
This is happening to me now but with a government pay card GOOGLE*GAMANIA. GOOGLE*Nguyen K Linh
GOOGLE*ONESOFT GOOGLE*ZOMOB Payment. All for $3.20. But there are over 30 charges. Then I called my card company and they simply had their computer say they are expieriencing heavy call volumes and to call back later and then hung up on me! WTF!
Same exact thing just happened to me with my daughters' social security money that comes on a government issued card. The same day the money was put in is the same day all these charges for $3.22 started. It has been everyday since Wednesday. I ran to an ATM had to absorb the fees and pulled all the money out. It is disgraceful Google has allowed these charges in the first place. I reported to my credit card company today and they cancelled this card and are sending a new one. I said you really think this is going to help? This is a social security problem . They said yes of course. We will see. I doubt it will fix the problem .
My google pay account was hacked and a charge of $692 went through. I was able to cancel another transaction for the same entity and amount.
Google will not fully investigate and or does not care that these are fraudulent charges. So far they think these transaction are legitimate. FRAUD FRAUD FRAUD
SO I got take by the hacker and GOOGLE!
Just cancelled second debit card in 2 months...for the same reason i am pissed...at least the bank recognized the charges were unusual and didnt pay them...one charge was for 199.00 and the other was 84.00
Also noticed the same unauthorized charges on my account. Have sent my bank email. Now waiting for their response. I hope they reverse the charges.
May 27, 2019 POS W/D SV GOOGLE *Ga g.co/helppay# MC GBR [protected] MASTERCARD 749.00
May 27, 2019 POS W/D SV GOOGLE *Ga g.co/helppay# MC GBR [protected] MASTERCARD 199.00
May 27, 2019 POS W/D SV GOOGLE *Ga g.co/helppay# MC GBR [protected] MASTERCARD 99.00
May 27, 2019 POS W/D SV GOOGLE *Ga g.co/helppay# MC GBR [protected] MASTERCARD 49.00
May 27, 2019 POS W/D SV GOOGLE *Ga g.co/helppay# MC GBR [protected] MASTERCARD 199.00
May 27, 2019 POS W/D SV GOOGLE *Ga g.co/helppay# MC GBR [protected] MASTERCARD 49.00
May 23, 2019 POS W/D SV GOOGLE *Ga g.co/helppay# MC GBR [protected] MASTERCARD 449.00
May 23, 2019 POS W/D SV GOOGLE *Ga g.co/helppay# MC GBR [protected] MASTERCARD 399.00
May 23, 2019 POS W/D SV GOOGLE *Ga g.co/helppay# MC GBR [protected] MASTERCARD 449.00
May 20, 2019 POS W/D SV GOOGLE *Ga g.co/helppay# MC GBR [protected] MASTERCARD 99.00
May 20, 2019 POS W/D SV GOOGLE *Ga g.co/helppay# MC GBR [protected] MASTERCARD 149.00
May 15, 2019 POS W/D SV GOOGLE *Ga g.co/helppay# MC GBR [protected] MASTERCARD 199.00
May 15, 2019 POS W/D SV GOOGLE *Ga g.co/helppay# MC GBR [protected] MASTERCARD 49.00
May 15, 2019 POS W/D SV GOOGLE *Ga g.co/helppay# MC GBR [protected] MASTERCARD 749.00
I am having the same issue. I noticed 8 charges for $4.99 and then a charge for $95.99. I called the bank and they closed my card and re-issued me a new one, but they are investigating and i am not sure if they will refund me my money or not. I have now had my card 2 days and I just looked at my bank statement and there is a new charge for $4.99. I don't understand how this is happening but it is very frustrating.
A big part of the problem is that Google and VISA have an arrangement that when a card # is changed (due to fraud or any other reason). VISA automatically feeds Google the new card #. It just goes on and on. Finally called my credit card company and convinced that to deny any charges from Google - I don't use Google for anything and now I never will.
I am having the same problem. Google told me also to check family and friends. No email confirmation on purchases. I found google to be not helpful.
I just discovered numerous Google Play charges on my bank statement. There are so many that I have lost count. I know I should be checking my statements but I become lazy and this is what happened. When I approached Google initially they had zero problem giving me refunds for a few charges which I was pretty thrilled about. When I gave them additional charges stating dates, the cost, etc., they only issued me a partial credit "out of good faith" saying that the charges were not unauthorized and that I should check with my family /friends to ensure they do not have my account information. I am now fighting for the additional monies owed. This is fraud without a doubt. I'm pretty sure any Technical Google person can see what IP address the payment went too, no? I'm not 100% how that works but in this world one can never tell.
Google gave me no refunds for over $300 of charges to my account from what they verified was not me making the charges. All to Google Play Studios and Phantom EFX. Google stated it is my banks responsibility since my credit card was charged. This is so time consuming to try to get fraud corrected and Google is doing nothing to stop the thief. They can see whose email the fraud is connected to. Great service Google! So glad we can count on you to just allow erroneous charges to our accounts and you just brush it off and make it someone else's responsibility.
A class action lawsuit should take place immediately! This is fraud! I had over $8, 500 taken from my account from google play before I ever noticed; more than 15 transactions on a daily for months! They were from online gambling sites that I never made purchases from and I have no idea how they got my card information. I was in the hospital when the transactions started and as I recovered at home and focused on my recovery they continued - I'm at fault for not paying attention to my bank statements during that time. I have since cancelled my credit card and filed a police report but don't know what to do to get my money back. Google and my bank refuse to issue me a refund.
Google does not care that someone has stolen your information. They will continue to tell you that you know the person, even when it's clear that you do not. Google would rather take someone's money than actually realize they're allowing credit card fraud to continue. I had something similar happen to me and twice now Google has told me I know the person, even though I have gone to great lengths to prove I do not. I have even filed a police report with the information I was able to obtain on the criminal.
After reading how often this happens to people I think its about time for Google to experience a class action lawsuit in order to bring about actual change. These criminals are allowed to steal and Google is enabling it at the cost of innocent people.
Yes a class action suit should occur if that is what it takes for them to stop the theft from their accounts to our bank accounts and credit cards.
I don’t even have a google play account, and they have stung me, I’ve now emptied my account until I can ring the bank tomorrow
How the hell do they get the information
In 2017 several card replaced multiple times charges not authorized . How do they continue to get numbers for ccards.
They even charged a sears card along with cards not activated. have never set up an account 2018 5 cards corrupted multiple times
Same here. I have had to cancel 4 credit cards since March with same problem. Small charges but very irritating to keep cancelling and reissuing card. I asked Google Play to add a function in their payments feature, allowing users to block their card from being used in any other Google Play account. This would solve the issue. However, this will probably take a looooong time. The last time I received a new card, I did not add to Google Play thinking that is where users were getting my credit card. However, my newest card was charged another Google Play fraud charge on June 9. Unsure how people are getting my card but they should not be able to add to another Google Play account. And this has only impacted one of my credit cards. All others are fine and have never had fraud charges.
Same thing happened to me on Apr. 03, 2017. I went to review my bank account on Apr. 04, 2017 and I noticed these fraudulent google charges for $2.99 x 15 (GOOGLE *TRAN QUANG g.co/payhelp# CA x 11 charges and GOOGLE *NGUYEN DUYEN g.co/payhelp# CA x 4 charges). I immediately called my bank and told them the situation. My bank was very understanding and they cancelled my card and issued me a new card and a transaction reversal for those $2.99 charges and told me they would look into what happened. Kind of pissed off that this happened, especially now that I have to wait for a new card and GOOGLE hasn't done anything about these fraudulent charges that happened to people like us.